When
the Cavs signed him as free agent away from the Utah Jazz, many expected CJ
Miles to have a breakout season. While
at Utah, Miles showed glimpses of what a good player he can be, and it was
expected that given the new environment and playing alongside future All Star
guard Kyrie Irving, Miles would live up to his potential. Unfortunately that has not happen as CJ has
performed rather lackluster thus far in the early stages of the season
averaging a little over five points per game while shooting just .292 from
the field—a far cry from his numbers in Utah (8.3ppg, .418FG%). Although it is very young in the season and
Miles can improve his numbers, it has become quite apparent that he will not
be anything more than a mere role player.
Fortunately for the Cavs, they did not waste too much their money as
Miles has a rather affordable contract (6$ million over the next three years)
that can easily be traded if his play continues to go sour.

First
Player of the Month: Anderson Varejao

After
spending the bulk of last season shelved with an injury, Anderaon Varejao has
bounced back with a vengeance posting career highs in scoring (14.1ppg) while
leading not only his team, but the league in rebounding (14.1 per game) at
the same time. Often considered a
throwback of the former Lebron James era, Anderson seemed out of place and no
longer a factor on a Cleveland team that is one its way to a long arduous
rebuilding period. At 30 years old,
Varejao has not only shown that he is still relevant, but given the chance,
he can prove to be quite the contributor.
Despite his inspiring play, it remains to be seen whether or not
Cleveland will continue to keep him as Varejao still remains a relic of a
past regime. Some contend that all he
is doing is increasing his trade value in the effort of finding a suitable
home for his talents while Cleveland marches on a new direction without
him.

Analysis:

Despite their
struggles, last season was a blessed one for the Cleveland Cavaliers—they won
the number one overall pick in the 2011 draft, Kyrie Irving, which as result
breathed new life into the Franchise. Behind
Irving’s rookie of the year performance, Cleveland managed to return to relevancy
once again as Cavs fans looked to move on from “the Decision” that shattered
their lives two years ago. This season
was supposed to keep the light of hope burning as Cleveland would return with
new faces and draft picks to bolster their roster and make them a force to be
reckoned with in the NBA.
Unfortunately, that has not really happened as the Cleveland Cavaliers
have stumbled quite a bit at the start of the season winning just three games
as the team has allowed their opponents to have their way with them on the offensive
end. It looks as if it will be another
long season for Cavaliers fans as their team enters the season with an
extremely young and inexperienced team.

Much of the Cavs’
problems simply have to do with their players’ young ages and severe lack of NBA
experience. The average age of the players
on roster is 24 years old, ten of them who are under the age of 25, and a
majority of the players have a little over a year of NBA experience. They are no veterans to really look to for
leadership as they are either incapacitated or they have become completely
irrelevant as they were holdouts of the previous regime and are currently out
of place on this next generation of Cavs players. As for the rest, many of them have come to
the league via the NBA draft or as rookie free agents that rose up from the
D-League. With the severe lack of
playing experience, there is little wonder how this team has started the way
it has.

They won their first
game against the Washington Wizards in convincing fashion (10/30/2012) then dropped
their next two to the Chicago Bulls by a sizable margin on their home court (11/2/2012)
and the Milwaukee Bucks by just three points on the road (11/3/2012). The
Cavs would then pull off the upset by beating one of the NBA’s Elite in the
Los Angeles Clippers, but then go on to drop their next six games by rather
sizeable margins—by an average of 9.2 points.
Cleveland managed to break their losing streak by upsetting the
Philadelphia 76ers at home (11/21/2012), but went back to losing four
straight before finishing the month with a much needed win against the
Atlanta Hawks (11/30/2012). From what
can be seen from the performances, one can see that the talent is there as
the Cavs managed to beat two teams whom are above .500 and managed to hang
tough against some of the league’s elite clubs such as the Miami Heat losing
by just two points (11/24/2012). The problem,
as is the case with every young team as inexperienced as Cleveland, is that although
the effort is there, they severely lack the consistency to really become a
threat to their opponents.

Offensively, all
that coach Byron Scott can count on is the production of his star Kyrie Irving
while the rest of the team remains an enigma.
Despite the surprising emergence of Anderson Varejao, it must be noted
that this is his best performance in his eight year career and at his age,
30, that production will sooner or later decline as he gets older. Save for Irving and Varejao, the only other
player that shoot more that .450 from the field is swingman Omri Casspi, and
he is not much of a factor offensively as he averages just 4 shot attempts
per game. The rest of the team just
shoot in the low 40s and high 30s putting more pressure on Irving and Varejao
to come through for them. As for the
defensive end, it has been a mixed bag as they have allowed a league’s worst
.492 from the field, yet force their opponents to turn over the ball at a
rather high rate.

Until they can
develop their players to become more consistent on the offensive and
defensive ends, the Cavs will remain a team just sputtering along with
lopsided performances with each passing game.
That will take time, however, and with a roster that is salmonella/e-coli
raw, don’t expect the team to massively improve anytime soon. Adding to Cleveland’s problems is the absence
of team leader Kyrie Irving who will be sidelined until the third week in
December as he recovers from a sprained finger on his shooting hand. Losing Irving will be tough for Cleveland as
they enter a month facing subpar competition and can possibly win at least
half of those games if Irving were on the floor. Thus it seems to be another long season for
Cleveland fans as they watch their team consisting of young and naive players
get throttled by a cold and cruel league.